ADPList PLG courses: Gamification - Getting users hooked

Main takeaways:
- Retention leads to growth as you can then explore with these retained folks to do more experiments for the other modules in the funnel. If one spends too much effort on the top part of the funnels and they do not make to the retention phase, then that qualifies as a leaky funnel problem.
Why gamification? Instant access to performance feedbacks, increases engagement, can boost productivity, increase retention
- Interesting categorization of types of users like achievers (really achieve and brag), socialisers (help others in the game), explorers, killers (tips and tricks of cheating the system)
- If core loop is not strong enough then retention will suffer. The core loop -> Action. Reward. Progress and repeat. Onboarding is very important. If it is not easy, your day 7 day 30 will not look healthy then there is nothing much you can do. Feedback is important, how to move past the challenges. If design looks nice, people tend to stay longer. 
- Basics of gamification - 5 common mechanics - Points (royalty platform, num of followers, cashback system. Anything that is quantifiable in discreet numbers -> you can redeem the points -> soft currency, hard currency, experience points, player rank, items tradeable currencies, friends, visitors -> gives a sense of achievement and earning). Badges. Levels. Leaderboard (Strava does well. Invite your friends. Maintaining the lead is so imp - the psychology, employee of month). Challenges (not too hard, give them a path to overcome the challenge). adpgrowth
- Just having gamification will not work, you have to give accelerated feedback cycles, clear goals and rules of play, a compelling narrative (if you have a badge then that means you are respected), challenging but achievable tasks.
- Bad spots of gamification -> some people can find a way to cheat the system and make the organisation bleed, or people spending their entire money to buy points
- Black hat gamification -> if user afraid of losing something. Any negative emotions
- What motivations of B2B users are? Time and social recognition can work well. Points may not work very well.